


Worth Protecting

by Luna_Myth



Series: and i am coming home to you (if it's the last thing that i do) [8]
Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alliances, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Drama, Awkward Conversations, Battle, Blood and Injury, Bodyguard, Canon Rewrite, Canon-Typical Violence, Crying, F/M, Fantasy, Gen, Horseback Riding, POV Alternating, Pain, Protectiveness, SAO 17, Science Fiction, Virtual Reality, War, i'm posting this one in parts okay, theres a lot of crying idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22059772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna_Myth/pseuds/Luna_Myth
Summary: Eugeo offers his service. Asuna makes a deal. The War of the Underworld continues.{SAO 17: Awakening - canon divergence.}
Relationships: Eugeo & Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito, Eugeo & Yuuki Asuna | Asuna, Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Yuuki Asuna | Asuna
Series: and i am coming home to you (if it's the last thing that i do) [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/779988
Comments: 31
Kudos: 81





	1. Moral Responsibility

**Author's Note:**

> really wanted to post something before the end of the year so here's this. there's gonna be another part. 
> 
> cw: miscarriage mention

Eugeo did not have much experience riding horses, or dragons for that matter, which would have made him a pretty unimpressive Integrity Knight if he had cared to think of himself as one. Administrator might have give him the rank of one, but compared with everyone else who had undergone the process of becoming an Integrity Knight, he had escaped relatively unscathed, so in his mind, he was still just Eugeo, wielder of the Blue Rose Sword, friend to Kirito and Alice, and commoner from Rulid. 

Unfortunately, this meant he was not very good at riding horses, and right now, it would have been preferable if he was. He and the other Integrity Knights, plus Asuna, were riding out to the frontlines, where hundreds of enemy soldiers had already crossed via rope the ravine Asuna had made and thousands more were attempting to. The last thing anyone needed was him making a fool of himself in front of thousands of enemy soldiers. 

Awkwardly, Eugeo steered his horse towards Asuna, who for reasons unknown seemed to be having no trouble with horseback riding. She sat atop a beautiful white mare, looking every inch a goddess from heaven descended to aid humanity, her eyes fixed on the battlefield ahead of them. The only things about her that betrayed anxiety were the furrow in her brow and the way she kept reaching for the rapier at her hip almost reflexively. Eugeo supposed it made sense that Kirito’s wife would have the combat experience the habit seemed to imply, just judging off of Kirito’s obvious expertise, but that didn’t explain the horseback riding ability. 

He managed to get his horse, a timid pale yellow creature, to pull up alongside Asuna’s and walk in step with the other horse and rider. They were both trailing at the back of the group now. 

“Hello, Lady Asuna,” said Eugeo respectfully. “Are you doing alright today?” 

Asuna started to answer, then seemed to pause and consider the question. “I am doing as well as I could be, given the circumstances.” She graced him with a friendly smile, apparently having forgiven him for his poor choice of words yesterday when they’d first met. “How are you?” 

“I’m fine,” he said. “Kind of worried about the battle and everyone’s safety, but I’m fine. Actually, that brings me to what I wanted to talk to you about.” Eugeo’s expression turned serious. “Are you sure you and your baby will be safe with you fighting alongside us? I know you’re a goddess, my lady, but it doesn’t seem right putting you in danger like this.” 

Once again, Asuna paused to consider. “If something happens to me here,” she said, “I’ll reappear in the celestial realm. You shouldn’t need to worry about me, but…” Asuna bit her lip. “Nothing like this has ever happened before.” She smiled ruefully. “I’m more worried about the effect on the baby than on me.” 

Eugeo nodded thoughtfully and adjusted his grip on the reins of his horse. “Well, don’t worry about it,” he said easily, with as much confidence as he could muster despite his clumsy horseback riding. “You’re plenty strong on your own, but I’m going to look out for you, okay? For Kirito’s sake as much as your own. It’s the least I can do.” 

He’d already told her the previous night about how Kirito had saved his life, but that wasn’t the only reason Eugeo felt compelled to help protect Asuna. He genuinely liked her, and although he’d only known her for a day, he could see what made her such a good match for his friend. They were both strong, kind people with a deeply held sense of right and wrong, and any child made of those component parts was worth protecting, in Eugeo’s opinion. If he’d been made aware that anyone going into danger with them was pregnant, naturally Eugeo would feel a moral responsibility to protect that individual, but considering it was Asuna, Kirito’s wife and a good person in her own right, he felt he had no other option but to look after her--even if she was perfectly capable of protecting herself. 

“You really don’t have to,” she started to protest, looking guilty for some reason, but Eugeo raised a hand and respectfully shook his head. 

“Please, Lady Asuna,” he said. “I want to. It’s important to me that you’re safe--I have a feeling your presence here will be required, and even if you can’t die or suffer long lasting harm, I would hate to see you badly injured if it’s possible to avoid it. It can’t be good for you or your child.” 

Asuna looked away, staring at the massing enemy troops on the horizon. “Fine,” she said, and it could have just been the lighting, but Eugeo swore her cheeks looked pink. “I suppose you’re right.” 

At last she turned to look at him, and her usual look of quiet determination was back. “Thank you, Eugeo,” she said sincerely. “I appreciate your help.” 

Eugeo smiled, happy he’d managed to get his point across. Suddenly, his horse threw its head back and whinnied nervously. He hurried to try calming it, making vague soothing noises, and while it settled back down relatively quickly, it remained somewhat skittish. 

“No problem,” said Eugeo, awkwardly returning both hands to his reins. “So how come you’re so good at horseback riding, Lady Asuna? I can’t imagine it comes up that often in the celestial realm.” 

“You can just call me Asuna,” she told him, smiling in an embarrassed sort of way. “Since I called you Eugeo it’s only fair. And anyway, you’re right--we don’t often travel by horse where I’m from, but in the place I met Kirito, it was more common. That’s where I learned to how to ride a horse, and it’s also where I learned to fight.” 

Eugeo opened his mouth to respond, but Bercouli at the head of the group suddenly stopped and held out a hand. 

“We’re approaching the ropes, everyone.” He drew his sword with a sigh, and Alice and Sheyta Synthesis Twelve followed suit. “Get ready.” 

XXX

Asuna couldn’t help feeling somewhat guilty as she watched Eugeo fight off attackers on her behalf, but this was matched by another feeling--genuine fear for the safety of her unborn child. This was not her real body, so she had no concerns over injuring herself, and if by some miracle an attack managed to do enough damage to bring her outrageous amount of health to zero, she would simply wake up in the Soul Translator. By this token, she felt terrible allowing Eugeo to risk his one and only life defending her, but the reason she had allowed it nonetheless lay in the fact that she couldn’t prove he was wrong about an injury here being bad for her baby in the real world. The STL might have had a completely revolutionary graphics interface, and the inhabitants of the world it allowed access to were fully realized people, but at its heart it was just another piece of full-dive tech, and Asuna had enough experience with those to know they were rarely completely safe. 

In general, full-dive technology worked by interfacing with the user’s brain and performing two tasks. The first was to block signals going from the user’s brain to the user’s body, so that when the player attempted to move while in the virtual world, they wouldn’t run straight into a wall in the real world. The second was to translate these signals into data the game engine could understand, thereby allowing movement of the player in game, and to in turn send response data back to the player, allowing them to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the new virtual world. 

It was with that last task that issues could sometimes arise, and where Asuna found cause for concern. Normally, in most VR worlds, something referred to as the pain absorber prevented users from experiencing pain, as this would naturally turn people off of playing, but because the Underworld wasn’t designed for human players but rather as a world for the artificial fluctlights, this wasn’t happening. All pain from a stubbed toe to a lost arm was replicated and felt with stunning accuracy. (And she imagined childbirth would be as well, but she wasn’t intending to stay long enough to find out.) 

The potential problem with this was while her body in the real world certainly wasn’t sustaining any damage, with the possible exception of her fluctlight, it was still receiving those pain signals and responding accordingly. When Kirito had been fighting for very real stakes while in  _ Gun Gale Online _ during the Death Gun incident, his heart rate and stress hormone levels had been elevated, and his unconscious form had been visibly distressed. So even if Asuna wasn’t physically being hurt in the real world, her body was still being placed under a considerable amount of strain, and if, for example, she took a hit in this world that would have killed her in the real world, she hated to think how her body would respond. She was only eight to twelve weeks along by the best guesses of herself and the  _ Ocean Turtle _ ’s nurse. The chance of a miscarriage was relatively high. 

Unfortunately, she was not in a situation where she could allow herself to stand idly by and let Eugeo do all the work for her. Just when it had appeared that the situation with the Dark Army was under control, tens of thousands of American players had dived into the Underworld at the behest of Vecta with the intent to slaughter everyone, Human Empire and Dark Territory alike. The Human Guardian Army decoy force had been surrounded, and Asuna had been forced to join Eugeo in the fight in order to prevent the entire force from being massacred through sheer numbers. 

The one bright side of the situation was that at least she could fight the American players without any sense of guilt or remorse. One quick thrust to the heart and they would be logged out of the Underworld, back to being perfectly safe in their homes and unable to hurt anyone. So Asuna fought with a defensive fury that she hadn’t had cause for in some time. This combined with Eugeo’s impressive strength meant that they were just about holding the line of enemies back when suddenly, a young man appeared in the horde, exploding American players left and right with the sheer power of his fists. 

“Heh,” he said, standing in front of Asuna in the brief lull of enemies. “They’re all soft.” 

Eugeo came to stand by her side protectively as Asuna stared at the man in surprise. He was young, somewhere around twenty probably, and his fire-red hair and lack of armor marked him as a pugilist from the Dark Territory. Well-toned muscles stood out under his tan skin, and a smear of blood stood out on his face beneath where his right eye should have been. He was clearly remarkably powerful for having made it to the other side of the ravine and then through the horde of American players. If he was looking for a fight with them, they might be in some trouble. 

“Let’s make a deal,” he said instead, in a voice that betrayed both his youth and his desperation. 

“A deal for what?” Asuna asked, holding her rapier up in a defensive position. More American players would be descending on the scene soon enough even if the pugilist turned out to be trustworthy. 

“You’re the one who split the earth and made those huge rocky outcroppings, yeah? I want you to put a firm bridge over that ravine behind us--doesn’t matter if it’s skinny. Then my four thousand pugilists can come over and help you until all of these soldiers in red are crushed into nothing.” 

Asuna exchanged a glance with Eugeo, who looked just as uncertain as she felt. Could this man be trusted? 

“I don’t think he’s lying.” Sheyta Synthesis Twelve had noticed the pugilist’s entrance from over where she had been calmly severing the heads of American players. The pugilist grinned at her when he spotted her, a charming and almost bashful smile that proved he had definitely met the grey Integrity Knight before. 

_ I’ll trust him _ , Asuna decided in that moment. Future events might conspire to prove the decision wrong, but in that moment, she felt sure it was the right thing to do. 

“Alright,” she told the pugilist. “I will place a bridge over the ravine.” 

Then she grimaced as she remembered how much it had hurt the last time she had used the terrain-altering power, a short while ago to create a barrier between the Americans and the human army. It was doubtful she would be able to use the power again after this without something truly awful happening, but she had to do it now and pray that the pugilists would keep up their end of the bargain. 

Asuna raised her rapier and pointed it in the direction of the ravine. A celestial chorus filled the air, and rainbow light swept across the chasm, dragging two pillars of rock with it from each side until they met in the middle and formed a solid bridge. Immediately the four thousand pugilists began chanting and running across the bridge, but Asuna could hardly register it over the pain in her skull, a feeling like a hot poker had stabbed the center of her brain. She swayed on the spot and gripped her rapier tighter. 

“Whoa, Asuna…” Eugeo made an effort to steady her with his free hand, his other holding the Blue Rose Sword in front of the two of them protectively. “Take a minute, okay? I can handle things here.” 

He was bleeding in a couple places, Asuna noticed vaguely, but she didn’t argue with him, her dazed fluctlight not feeling up to the task. What was she trying to do again? Get back to her lover, wasn’t it? Kirito. That was it. That was who she was here for. The pain lessened slightly. She could do this. 


	2. Benevolence to the Universe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asuna examines her priorities. Sinon arrives. Eugeo upholds his duty as a protector.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [shows up two months late with the update]

“I understand if you need to go after Alice,” said Asuna, as she and Eugeo fought their way through the crowds of soldiers preparing to leave, trying to find the supply wagon housing Kirito. “I don’t want you to feel obligated to stay when I know you’re friends with Alice and she’s the bigger priority.” 

Eugeo hesitated, feeling torn, before shaking his head. “I don’t have a dragon, and I’m not good at riding horses. There’s no point in me going after her on my own when the whole army is going after her--I need to stay here and help you. Besides, Commander Bercouli is going after her, and he has three dragons and a headstart, not to mention he’s the strongest swordsman in the world. He’ll get her back, assuming she doesn’t free herself.” 

Upon hearing that Alice had been taken by Emperor Vecta, Eugeo had immediately felt guilty for not doing anything to stop it from happening, but there was nothing he could do now that he wasn’t already doing. He was traveling with the army and Asuna south, the same direction Vecta and Alice and then Bercouli had disappeared to. He was worried about the whole thing, naturally, not only because he cared about Alice but also because of the implications for the whole of the Underworld, but he was committed to playing his part here, with Asuna and Kirito and Ronie and Tiese and everyone else in the Human Guardian Army. He couldn’t change his course now--he just had to believe in Bercouli and Alice, and hope that he and the others would be able to help when the time came. 

“I hope you’re right,” said Asuna. She looked tired, but just as determined as ever, which perfectly matched how Eugeo felt. While he’d been able to protect Asuna from most harm, he himself had suffered a couple of injuries, most notably a nasty gash to his arm that had bled profusely. It was bandaged now, but he had a feeling it was going to start bleeding through at any moment. At least in terms of his actual life value he felt fine. After surviving an assault on the Central Cathedral, he wasn’t going to die unless a real effort was made, and these strange otherworldly invaders--Americans, Asuna had called them--weren’t going to pull it off. 

He and Asuna reached the supply wagon and hurried inside, Eugeo quickly holding the door open and closing it behind them. They were met with the sight of Kirito’s overturned wheelchair, the man himself lying on the floor with his one hand outstretched, and Ronie and Tiese hovering over him worriedly. 

“Asuna! Eugeo!” Ronie looked up at them, clearly distressed. Her face was streaked with tears. “Kirito...he keeps trying to leave...” 

Understanding and concern flashed over Asuna’s face, and she knelt down beside her lover and took his hand in an attempt to comfort him. “Yes,” she murmured. “Alice was abducted by the enemy emperor. I think Kirito must have sensed that.” 

Eugeo nodded from his place by the door. Kirito would never be able to sit by and do nothing while people were in danger, no matter how injured he himself was. If only he would get better, Eugeo was sure Kirito would be able to turn the tide of the battle, no matter how improbable it sounded for one person. 

The man in question made a weak noise of distress and reached toward Asuna. She hurried to assure him she was alright, and that Eugeo was okay as well. The way she touched him was so tender and full of love that Eugeo had to look away, feeling like he was intruding. When he looked back, Asuna seemed to have succeeded at calming Kirito down, and he’d been lifted back into his chair. 

“...So when you’re ready...you don’t have to blame yourself anymore…” Asuna was saying, giving her husband one last hug. She straightened, brushed down her outfit, and surveyed the room. “We’re going to chase after the enemy emperor, Vecta,” she informed Ronie and Tiese. “Bercouli is in pursuit with the dragons now, so I’m sure he’ll catch up at some point. Until then...take good care of Kirito, Ronie and Tiese.” 

Asuna turned to leave, clearly reluctant, as Ronie and Tiese promised they would do so, but Eugeo hung back for a moment. “I hope you join us soon,” he told Kirito. Then he addressed his former page and her friend. “I’ll be with Asuna if you two need anything. Stay cool.” 

Eugeo smiled at them, and then he and Asuna left the wagon to prepare for the army’s departure. 

XXX

They had made it to a strange sunken area before being ambushed. Asuna, Eugeo, Renly, and the rest of the Human Guardian Army, at this point only numbering seven hundred people, had been following a path through the wasteland of the Dark Territory for some time now, and this path had led them to a crater. Then, just as the army was passing through this low-lying region, the sky had filled with beams of red light, and thousands upon thousands of soldiers in red had appeared again, attempting to trap the human army in the pit. Renly, as the sole legitimate Integrity Knight remaining, had ordered a charge in the hopes of breaking through before the red soldiers formed a solid line, but then another figure had appeared in the sky--a young woman in brilliant blue armor, shining as bright as a star and holding a longbow. 

The young woman drew the bow and fired it. Instantly thousands of enemy soldiers were engulfed in flames, and Asuna, who moments before had been near despair, smiled with relief, tears pricking her eyes. She recognized the figure now. 

The archer, who was clearly using Super-Account 02, Solus, the Sun Goddess, descended and landed lightly on a supply wagon. “Sorry it took so long, Asuna.” 

Asuna jumped from her horse to the supply wagon and hugged her immediately, closing her eyes against the incoming tears of relief. “Shino-non!” After all the stress of not just high-stakes combat in an unfamiliar world and separation from her partner, but also the process of sneaking aboard the  _ Ocean Turtle _ and the realization of her condition, the sight of a familiar face, especially one so clearly competent, left Asuna near-incapable of speech. She clung to Sinon and felt tears roll down her face despite herself. 

“It’s okay, Asuna,” said Sinon. “You’ve done a great job so far. Just let me take it from here.” She patted Asuna gently, and still holding her friend, Sinon drew back her bow and fired a thin beam of light that nonetheless decimated the remaining enemy forces blocking the path. Asuna blinked her eyes and tried to stop crying. She needed to get it together so she could help, but she was so relieved to have a friend here and that the remaining human forces weren’t going to be destroyed immediately that it was proving rather difficult. 

Sinon put away her bow and carefully pushed Asuna away from her so she could face her. She quickly explained that she had seen what looked to be a historical ruin a few miles down the path, and that it would be their best chance to fight off the remaining warriors in red without getting surrounded. Asuna nodded, finally managing to force her expression into something approaching calm. She approved of this course of action and told Sinon as much, the last of her tears finally getting rubbed away. 

The rearguard of the human army cleared the enemy blockade. Asuna breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Sinon, who seemed satisfied with her efforts. 

“Now, with that settled,” said Sinon, her serious expression lightening, “is Kirito nearby? I can’t imagine you’ve let him too far out of your sight with all that’s happened.” 

Asuna smiled sheepishly. “He’s right below us, in this supply wagon.” She gestured wordlessly at their feet, feeling a sense of protectiveness rise in her despite herself. She trusted Sinon implicitly, and so did Kirito, she knew, but she couldn’t help feeling somewhat wary of sharing the location of her lover when he was in such a defenseless state. 

“Let’s see what trouble he’s gotten himself into this time,” said Sinon, heading toward the back of the supply wagon and jumping over the edge and through the doorway to the interior. Asuna followed somewhat more cautiously. 

Once inside, Sinon introduced herself to Ronie and Tiese and proceeded to look over Kirito, her face troubled. Asuna was watching from near the door, trying to ignore the ache in her heart and the anxiety plaguing her brain, when the flaps to the supply wagon rustled and Eugeo stepped inside. 

“I take it our savior is a friend of yours,” said Eugeo, smiling easily. He had a way about him that implored Asuna to trust him, and she could see how his level-headed nature would have made him a good friend to Kirito. Despite concerns for his safety, she was glad to have him around. “What’s her name, if it’s not Solus?” 

“Here she goes by Sinon,” Asuna answered, watching the woman in question stare at Kirito like he was a jigsaw puzzle she was trying to piece back together. Asuna hoped someone would succeed soon. Without thinking, she smoothed a hand over her stomach self-consciously, as if to fix her clothing, but seeing as she was wearing her Stacia outfit, it didn’t accomplish a whole lot. 

Sinon squeezed Kirito’s shoulder in a sisterly fashion and turned back to Asuna and Eugeo, raising an eyebrow at hearing her name mentioned. “That’s right,” she said. “I’m Sinon. Who are you and what are you doing here, stranger?” 

She was looking at Eugeo in that quietly intense way of hers, and he smiled nervously, clearly unsettled by the direct questioning of a goddess, but he stood his ground. 

“My name is Eugeo,” he said. “I’m Kirito’s friend, and I’m here to protect Asuna for the time being.” 

“Why would Asuna need protecting?” Sinon crossed her arms coolly. “She’s one of the most powerful people I know, and doesn’t she currently have divine powers?” 

Eugeo looked startled. “Oh, well--”

Asuna held out a hand to stop him, her face flaming. “I haven’t told her yet.” 

Eugeo stopped talking, his eyes wide, and bowed his head respectfully, as if waiting for Asuna to continue. Unfortunately, Asuna wasn’t sure what to say. Her heart was suddenly pounding, and she had to resist the urge to fidget with her clothes again, her whole body stiffening instead. Apart from Kirito, she hadn’t told any of her friends and family yet, and Kirito hadn’t exactly been in a position to react. She didn’t know how Sinon would, but she was going to have to tell her sooner or later, and now it looked like it was going to be sooner rather than later. Asuna took a deep breath and tried to control her heart rate and blushing. Everything would be fine, she was sure. 

“Told me what?” Sinon looked genuinely confused and more than a bit concerned. Asuna almost wished she would just guess and be right so she wouldn’t have to explain it herself, but the odds of that were slim to none, no matter how obvious the situation felt to Asuna. 

“I’m having a baby,” she said in a rush. “With Kirito,” she added. This was, of course, obvious, but after Eugeo’s earlier confusion, she wasn’t leaving anything open to interpretation. When Sinon didn’t respond immediately, she kept talking, explaining her experiences aboard the  _ Ocean Turtle _ and subsequent visit to the nurse and realization. 

“And then some time after that, these unknown attackers cut the main power line and forced us all into the secondary control room, where I learned about what happened to Kirito’s fluctlight, and then I had to dive into the Underworld to help him, and here we are.” Asuna looked at Sinon, awaiting her reaction to the tale. 

Sinon blinked. Once. Twice. Then she said, “I’m sorry,  _ what _ ? Can you say that first part again? I heard everything you said the first time--I just need to hear you say it again.” 

Asuna flushed. “I’m having a baby,” she repeated. Her hand crept to her abdomen once more. She shouldn’t really be showing, but something about the way the Underworld’s main visualizer had interpreted her self-image meant she could feel a slight swell beneath her hand. Sinon appeared to notice as well, her eyes widening. 

“Oh,” said Sinon. “Okay. That’s what I thought you’d said.” She spun around and faced Kirito, one hand on her hip, the other pointing at him, and said, “You better wake up right now, Kirito, because this is so far out of my skillset I have no idea what to do.” 

Kirito’s eyes remained empty. 

Sinon turned back around and locked eyes with Asuna, who had suddenly found herself trying not to cry. “He better wake up soon,” Sinon repeated, “or he’ll have me to answer to for leaving you alone like this. Are you sure you’re okay, Asuna?” 

Asuna restrained a sob, sniffing instead, and wiped the tears from her eyes, nodding. “I’ll be fine,” she said. “Kirito will wake up soon, and in the meantime the rest of us will keep the Underworld safe.” She gave a watery laugh. “I’m sorry I keep crying in front of you, though. It might be pregnancy related.” 

“You’re more than entitled to crying,” said Sinon. “The situation is already stressful enough as it is without taking into account everything else you’re going through. Don’t feel bad about it.” 

“Thanks.” Asuna rubbed her hands over her face and tried to focus again. “So what’s the plan now?” 

Sinon looked relieved to change the subject. “I’m going to fly over to the ruins and scout ahead for us.” 

Asuna blinked. “Y-you can fly still? That wasn’t just a spawn-in buff?” 

Sinon tilted her head. “Yeah, it’s part of Super-Account 02--Unlimited Flight, according to Higa. I heard it doesn’t even have a time limit.” 

Asuna’s focus abruptly shifted back to the situation at hand. The part of her mind reserved for gaming tactics and battle strategy activated, and she said, “Then you can’t stay here. If you can fly, you need to go after Alice. She was captured by Vecta, and if he gets her to the World’s End Altar, this whole world will be destroyed, along with Kirito’s chance of waking up.” Asuna did her best to fill Sinon in on as many the details as she could remember, and then her friend nodded and turned to the door, preparing to leave. 

“You’re sure you’ll be okay here, Asuna?” Sinon asked, hovering by the exit, her brow furrowed. Despite acknowledging the soundness of Asuna’s strategy, she was clearly reluctant to leave her alone after what she’d just disclosed. 

“I’ll be fine,” Asuna insisted, hoping she was right, “and even if I’m not, this is more important--the whole Underworld and thousands of lives are at stake. Besides, Eugeo has already assigned himself the role of my bodyguard. Go save the world, Sinon.” 

Sinon cracked a smile. “I don’t know about that, but I’m going. Good luck, Asuna. Keep her safe, Eugeo.” 

Eugeo nodded seriously. “You have my word.” 

Sinon left, and Asuna immediately fell back against the wall of the supply wagon, her face in her hands. She felt exhausted, but the human army needed to prepare for the battle at the ruins, and she needed to help them. A steady stream of thoughts and worries and battle strategies ran through her mind. 

“Um, Asuna?” She looked up at Eugeo. “Did you mean what you said before? About the safety of thousands of lives--people you haven’t met--being more important than your own safety and pregnancy?” 

Asuna sighed, still leaning against the wall. “I don’t know,” she said. “Kirito’s safety is my first and foremost priority, but I know he cares about everyone who lives in this world, and even though I’ve only been here for a short time, so do I. I can’t value the potential life of one child over the thousands of people who already exist, even if that child is mine and Kirito’s, but--” She broke off, shaking her head.  _ But I want to. _

“If given a hard choice between saving Kirito and our baby, or saving this world, I don’t think I could stop myself from choosing them, but thankfully, I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Asuna stood up, giving Eugeo a small self-conscious smile. She brushed down her skirt again and readied herself for battle. “With you looking out for me, I’m sure there’s no danger to me or the baby. Everyone will be safe.” 

XXX

Eugeo’s moment came sooner than expected. 

After arriving at the ruins and forming a defensive line across the entrance to the temple grounds, Asuna had insisted on stationing herself at the center of the line, leaving Renly to the right flank and Eugeo to the left. At first, this strategy worked brilliantly. Between Renly’s Double-Winged Blades, Asuna’s impossibly fast rapier strikes, and Eugeo’s Blue Rose Sword, they had been holding the line easily for countless minutes, the bodies of the red soldiers piling up like firewood before disappearing in bursts of light. This had continued for longer than Eugeo could say, with Asuna apparently doing a fine job of protecting herself, when suddenly a group of heavy spearmen had appeared. 

Eugeo slashed through the three red warriors in front of him and sighed, watching their severed tops fall to the ground in a spray of blood. It made sense the enemy would tire of running straight at them only to be killed instantly, but he didn’t fancy the defensive line’s chances against the spearmen. If the line was broken just once by the charge, Eugeo doubted there would be enough reinforcements to fill it again, the human army’s inferior numbers finally getting the best of them. 

Asuna called out from the center: “They’re going to charge with spears! Watch the points and avoid the first lunge! Once you’re inside their length, they can be beaten!” 

The line of twenty lancers charged. Obediently, Eugeo watched them approach and stepped inside at the last moment, ending up close enough to a spearman to club him over the head with the hilt of the Blue Rose Sword. He fell down immediately, and Eugeo took the opportunity to stab him through the heart. While he wasn’t as fast as Asuna with her rapier or even Renly with his high-speed boomerangs, Eugeo did have one thing going for him, and that was brute strength. While the others relied on speed and precision to quickly and accurately pierce their opponents in the places they were most vulnerable, racking up an impressive kill count along the way, one thing they couldn’t do was hack straight through armor or other equipment. Eugeo, however, had the strength to cut through just about anything, honed from years of swinging at the Gigas Cedar and training at swordcraft academies, and he used that strength now to break in half the spears of the lancers on either side of him. 

The spearmen complained in a language Eugeo couldn’t understand, but recognized as the sacred tongue, before he hit them both with Slant, the first move Kirito had ever taught him, and they stopped talking permanently. He looked up to see how Asuna was doing. He had caught her just in time to watch her leap into the air, rip the helmet off one of the spearmen, and stab him in the neck. 

“Take the wounded to the back!” she ordered, as if this insane show of agility were perfectly normal. “They are the top healing priority!” 

Eugeo turned back to repulsing the rest of the lancers, but no sooner had he and the others finished than the ground started rumbling again as another group of heavy spearmen got into formation. He froze, realizing with horror that he had drifted away from his station on the left flank. Some distance away, but closer than she ought to be, Asuna seemed to realize the same thing, tearing her eyes away from the oncoming spearmen and back to the undefended center of the line. As one, Eugeo and Asuna sprinted back in the direction of their stations, but the spearmen had the advantage of momentum. Fear pricked at Eugeo’s mind as he watched the sharp points of the lances approach the line. 

On a sudden impulse, Eugeo changed direction, swerving toward Asuna and the center of the line. There wasn’t going to be time for him or Asuna to get into a defensive position to make a stand before the oncoming spearmen--the only thing they would be able to do was get between the spear points and the line of soldiers. From there, it would be uniquely difficult to parry or do anything short of attempt to stop the spear points outright, something Eugeo wasn’t particularly suited to and Asuna even less so. It was times like this Eugeo regretted not knowing anyone with shield-training. 

The distance between the lancers and the line closed. Time seemed to slow as Eugeo watched Asuna leap into position between a lancer and a boy at the center of the line. Immediately it was clear to Eugeo that she wasn’t going to be able to parry in time, and he watched her try to grab the spear point with her blood-slicked hand only for it to slip through. 

Eugeo roared and with impressive force swung his sword down over the shaft of the spear. It snapped in half with a thunderous crack and dissolved, the blow instantly taking the inferior weapon’s life value to zero. Using the momentum from breaking the spear, Eugeo swung the Blue Rose Sword back up and neatly decapitated the lancer who less than a second ago had been set to pierce Asuna. The warrior in red collapsed to the ground without a word, and only then did the passage of time return to normal for Eugeo. 

Asuna’s face went pale as she took in what had just happened. Her eyes were wide with shock, and she looked around helplessly, her hands moving protectively to her stomach. The spear point had come less than three cens from her, as near as Eugeo could tell, and if he had been any slower to shatter it, it would have hit her square in the abdomen. The ramifications of this had stunned him and Asuna both into temporary silence. 

“Oh my God,” Asuna said at last. “T-thank you, Eugeo.” She gave a short bow, clearly still shaken. “The line…the lancers...we have to…” 

“Go take a moment,” he said, gesturing behind the lines back towards the healers. “I can handle things up here.” 

Asuna looked like she was going to argue, but evidently she changed her mind because she nodded shakily and withdrew, her face still white with shock. 

With Asuna hopefully safe, Eugeo looked around the battlefield and began chanting the art for Perfect Weapon Control. 

XXX

Growing up, Eugeo had been taught to believe in the goddesses and in the Pontifex that spoke for them. He had also grown up with stories of Vecta, god of darkness, although he wasn’t the sort of deity one could rightly pray to. Since then, he had been one of a few people personally responsible for the removal of the Pontifex from her position, and it had become more than clear that she wasn’t speaking on behalf of any deities other than herself. She had been a terrible person, and Eugeo shuddered to think that everyone in the world had been following her orders, and indeed that many people still did. There remained plenty of damage still to correct, but at least Administrator herself was gone. 

Naturally this had called into question everything Eugeo had thought he had known about the world, but accompanying Kirito, the process had actually occurred so gradually that by the time the shock came, he was more or less prepared. The real question that had continued to puzzle him was about the nature of the gods themselves and whether or not they even existed, but he hadn’t been able to puzzle over it for long before he got another unexpected answer. 

First a young woman named Asuna had descended in the form of the goddess Stacia, and another woman had appeared in the form of the goddess Solus, and it had turned out the god Vecta had arrived to lead the Dark Army, and although he couldn’t prove it, Eugeo wouldn’t be surprised to find that the goddess Terraria was somewhere in the mortal realm as well. His conception of the divine had taken quite a beating over the past few months, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. Although all these people, or at least Asuna and Sinon, clearly came from somewhere else that could be considered the celestial realm, they were no omnipotent deities. They had powers beyond the regular, but they weren’t completely beyond the scope of the Integrity Knights or even Eugeo himself. For the most part they acted just like regular people--good people--with the same concerns and needs and problems and desires as everyone else. 

All of which led Eugeo to wonder: who was really behind everything? If the beliefs he had been brought up on were completely wrong, who or what was responsible for the circumstances he found himself in now? 

Whoever it was, if he had ever had any faith in their benevolence, he was beginning to lose it. 

His Perfect Control art had worked well at first, but eventually he had had to stop for fear of breaking the Blue Rose Sword a second time. Then some friends of Asuna’s had shown up, and it had seemed they were going to win, for certain this time, victory snatched once more from the jaws of defeat, but the enemies just kept coming, wave after bloody wave. When a fresh round of enemy soldiers appeared, speaking more new languages Eugeo didn’t understand, he gave up on trying to do anything other than keep Asuna alive, figuring he owed Kirito at least that much for trying to save his world. 

When all but the strongest of their otherworldly reinforcements had been destroyed, the human army was convinced to surrender. Eugeo had succeeded in protecting Asuna from most harm, but despite his efforts she was bleeding in several places, and she seemed to be having enormous difficulty focusing, likely a result of her repeated attempts to manipulate the terrain despite the excruciating pain this seemed to cause her. She had fought heroically, especially impressive considering her condition, but neither her efforts nor Eugeo’s had made a difference in the long run. Asuna was sprawled on the ground from exhaustion, and Eugeo was on one knee, his sword held in front of him and Asuna, blood seeping through so many cuts on his body that the color of his tunic was no longer clear. The pain was considerable, but looking around, he figured it couldn’t be as bad as some of the others. 

Some man that he didn’t know but everyone else seemed to recognize had ordered the surrender and then had Asuna and her allies brought together in one place in order to talk to them. Most of that conversation went over Eugeo’s head, but it was clear this man had a personal vendetta against Kirito, and that Asuna and the others despised him. 

And then the hooded man raised a hand and had Kirito brought out, and Eugeo lost all hope of there being a benevolence to the universe. 

Asuna let out a choking noise behind him, like she was restraining a sound of despair, and all around the surviving otherworlders bristled and growled and groaned in distress. Eugeo watched with horror as the man in the black poncho came to realize that the rest of them had already known--that Kirito was currently all but helpless. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you kidding me? He’s all slack-jawed! Hey, wake up! Stand up, dude!” The man placed a foot on the side of Kirito’s wheelchair and swiftly kicked it over. “Good  _ morning?! _ ” 

Immediately, Eugeo attempted to push himself to his feet using the Blue Rose Sword, but enemy swords appeared, ready to kill him if he succeeded. At the same time more swords were leveled against Asuna and a red-haired man who Eugeo could only assume was a friend of Kirito’s, both of whom had also been attempting to stand. Cries of protest rang out from the defeated warriors, but the hooded man paid them no mind, continuing to taunt Kirito in the hopes of getting a reaction from him. 

The unknown man dragged Kirito into the air by one arm and smacked him in the face. “C’mon, say something!” 

Eugeo grit his teeth and prepared to stand again, but the others beat him to it. The red-haired man screamed and lunged forward--only to be pinned to the ground by an enormous sword through his back. He gurgled ominously, likely choking on his own blood, but continued to fight against the blade for any inch of progress, managing only to hurt himself more in the process. 

Asuna had hauled herself to her feet while this was happening, potentially aided by the fact Eugeo was in front of her, and now she roared in rage, tears in her eyes and fury emanating from every fiber of her being. Despite the numerous injuries to her arms and legs and how she looked like she might pass out at any moment, she was a magnificent sight, her righteous anger taking an almost physical form around her, and Eugeo was reminded of how readily he had believed her a goddess. He had since quietly come to the conclusion this was not the most accurate term to describe the otherworlders, but looking at her now was almost enough to give him second thoughts. 

“ _ Don’t touch him! _ ” Asuna’s voice could’ve cracked stone with its force. “ _ Get your hands off of him! _ ” She was trembling, but still standing, and for a moment everyone was so stunned that nothing happened, but then she tried to take a step forward, and whatever superhuman force of will had been keeping her exhausted form upright dissolved. 

Eugeo twisted around and hurled himself forward to catch her, his battered body screaming in pain. Her eyes were closed tight, tears leaking out between the lashes, as he lowered her to the ground, Blue Rose Sword still raised protectively over the two of them. If any of the warriors in red had bothered to attack them, it wouldn’t have made a difference, but none of them did. They probably rightly assumed that they were no threat. They had been defeated. Eugeo fell onto his back on the ground beside Asuna. 

_ Kirito, please _ , he silently pleaded.  _ I can’t do anything else. Wake up. It’s up to you. _

XXX

Something slowly pulled me awake, a feeling like emerging from warm bathwater for the first time in far too long. The classroom gradually came into focus. I must have fallen asleep in homeroom somehow, and now I was intruding on cleaning time. I had the vague feeling I’d missed something important. How long had I been asleep? It couldn’t have been that long, or someone would have woken me earlier. 

I stood up and left the classroom. I had been having dreams, but now I couldn’t remember them except for a nagging feeling of unease. I had to do something, or talk to someone, perhaps, but I couldn’t remember the details. I sighed and kept walking. 

It would come back to me if it was important. 


End file.
